Pages To View:

Contact Us:

Share BDS Events

Why Boycott?

The state of Israel was built on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners. A majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless.

Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal, and called for effective remedies.

People of conscience in the world have historically fought the injustice of apartheid through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions. As in the struggle of South Africans against apartheid, we in the Hudson Valley support the Palestinians in their fight for justice.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Boycott SodaStream action at White Plains Walmart, 275 Main St, White Plains, NY 10601 across from City Center Mall and next to City Hall

You are all aware that SodaStream has announced that it will move from the industrial zone of the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumin . This decision follows a concerted international BDS campaign and a noteworthy tanking of the company’s stocks. SodaStream denies any relationship between its decision and the boycott. We know better.

Meanwhile, at the corporate level, Macy’s, which we targeted locally last December and in July, has taken SodaStream off its shelves.

Our work is not finished. First, the move has not yet happened. Second, SodaStream is moving to the Negev with significant Israeli government subsidies to assist it and forcibly displaced and re-located Bedouin population available as an essentially captive work force. Land theft, exploitation of labor, and discrimination against the local population will continue if we let up the pressure.

Locally we are shifting our focus to Walmart, which still sells SodaStream. A de-shelving at a second major corporation would send a crucial signal to SodaStream and to other firms that participate in denying Palestinians their basic human rights: oppression will be met with nonviolent resistance.

Join us on Saturday, December 13, from noon – 1 p.m. We will be singing seasonal songs with an anti-SodaStream, pro-Palestinian-rights theme , holding signs to make our message visible, and leafleting passers-by to explain why a boycott of Sodastream participates in a noble historical tradition that contributed to overturning Jim Crow and apartheid in South Africa. We are hoping to recruit some dancers for a traditional Palestinian debke interlude.

National JVP is planning a Burst the Bubble Hannukah Week of Action Dec. 16-24. We will help launch this campaign.

We need people to sing, people to make signs, people to engage with passers-by around the leaflets, and people to dance (you can learn). If you can help with any of these things, please reply to this email.

And please come. To make a meaningful statement, we need to field a significant presence on December 13 in front of Walmart in White Plains.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

The Swedish government officially recognized the state of Palestine on Thursday and said there were signs other European Union states would follow its lead.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom told reporters her government hoped it would bring a new dynamic to efforts to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Our decision comes at a critical time because over the last year we have seen how the peace talks have stalled, how decisions over new settlements on occupied Palestinian land have complicated a two-state solution and how violence has returned to Gaza,” she said.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Palestinian activists have hailed a decision by SodaStream International, an Israeli-owned soft drink company, to close its controversial factory in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, calling the decision a victory for the campaign for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions.

The decision by the company, which sells its fizzy drinks maker in 45 countries, to move the plant to Lehavim in Israel’s southern Negev region was for “purely commercial” reasons and not connected to pressure from pro-Palestinian groups over its location, said SodaStream representative Nirit Hurwitz.

The Hollywood star then cut ties with the charity, citing “a fundamental difference of opinion”. Oxfam opposes all trade from Israeli settlements, saying they are illegal and deny Palestinian rights.

“SodaStream’s announcement … shows that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is increasingly capable of holding corporate criminals to account for their participation in Israeli apartheid and colonialism,” said Rafeef Ziadah, a spokesperson.

“[The] BDS campaign pressure has forced retailers across Europe and North America to drop SodaStream, and the company’s share price has tumbled in recent months as our movement has caused increasing reputational damage to the SodaStream brand.”

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Yesterday, we visited 14 different stores near Union Square and asked them to stop selling SodaStream. At some, we spoke with managers who were receptive and said they would talk with the owners. At others, we were told there was a store policy not to discuss politics. At all, they now know that people are upset that they are selling SodaStream.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Candlelight VigilCalling for a Just Peace in GazaMourning all Victims of Violence in Palestine & Israel

Tuesday, August 5 @ 7pm at the clock tower in Nyack (corner of Cedar & Main)

In the spirit of humanity we come together to:* mourn the tragic deaths of both Palestinians and Israelis* call for an end to the Occupation and Siege* seek a just peace in Palestine/Israel

This coincides with Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of mourning that falls on August 4th and 5th this year. Please bring candles and materials to make signs. Sponsored by Rockland for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel.For more information or to endorse contactr4jp@npogroups.org.

Friday, July 25, 2014

-Sunday, July 27 in Woodstock: 12 - 1 pm on the Village Green. Vigil to end the slaughter in Gaza. Signs will be provided.

-Wednesday, July 30 in Woodstock: 5 - 6 on the Village Green, marching
to the Farmers' Market. Vigil to end the slaughter in Gaza. Signs will
be provided.

-Saturday, August 2 in New Paltz: 11:00 am in front of Starbucks at the
light. Vigil to end the slaughter in Gaza. Signs will be provided.

-Saturday, August 2 at 1:00 p.m: National March in Washington, D.C. Stop
the massacre in Gaza! The White House (1600 Pennsylvania Ave.) The
atrocities committed by the Israeli regime keep piling up in Gaza. In
response to this ongoing massacre, a broad coalition of anti-war, Muslim
and Arab-American groups have joined together to organize this national
march. To get a seat on a bus leaving from New York City, Contact:
nyc@answercoalition.org.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

-Sunday, July 13, WOODSTOCK: Silent Vigil to End the Genocide in Gaza will be held from 12 - 1 pm at the Village Green in Woodstock. This is a call to all residents of the Hudson Valley to stand in opposition to the US involvement in the slaughter of Palestinian civilians. No more funding of the Israeli war machine. No more protection of Israel in the UN. Sponsored by the Middle East Crisis Response http://www.mideastcrisis.org. Contact: 845 876-7906

Friday, July 11, 2014

Some twenty Westchester activists with reinforcements from NYC and Rockland gathered at Macy’s in downtown White Plains yesterday, July 9, in the late afternoon for the Boycott SodaStream-We Divest Day of Action. JVP-Westchester, WESPAC, Concerned Families of Westchester, and Women in Black sponsored the event. Our purposes were three: to call on Macy’s to de-shelve the carbonation devices produced in the industrial park of the illegal Israeli settlement Ma’aleh Adumin; to celebrate the snow-balling successes of the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions; and to urge international action to arrest the horrific downward spiral of violence in Palestine/Israel and to end the decades of injustice and the Occupation that lie at its roots.

Inspired by Dave Lippman, well-known musician and song-writer who is the soul of progressive street action in the New York area and generously agreed to join us, we sang BDS and SodaStream lyrics with an interlude of chants conveying similar messages. We also handed out nearly 200 flyers, some in Spanish, to explain the reasons for the boycott and engage with passers-by. Though the Macy’s corner usually sees a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, this summer afternoon was quieter than expected. Most of our conversations were pleasant if not always conclusive, but we did have two hostile encounters. A Macy’s client with a newly purchased SodaStream in hand assumed an aggressive stance and vented belligerently pro-Israel views until persuaded to desist. An hour later a woman dressed stylishly in black from head to toe, long skirt, long sleeves and head-covering, posed provocatively right next to our group with a packaged Sodastream as her friend snapped photos. (Some of us wondered whether her garb was a disguise.) Two police officers appeared between these incidents to assure us that they were keeping an eye on the situation and ready to assist if we needed any help. They were well aware that we had the requisite site and sound permits, and their overture was friendly.

Despite email, fax, and phone communication with eight T.V., radio, and press organizations that operate in Westchester, we did not have any reporters on the scene. We did receive one call in advance from The Journal News. To anyone who has media contacts to share – your advice would be most welcome as we move forward.

Sincere thanks to all those who helped organize and publicize this event, created flyers and signs, lent their voices to song and chant, and handed out leaflets. We are fortunate that gifted photographer Andrew Courtney was on hand to document the action (see photos below). Participants who would like to add their observations to this report : please send your comments to this email address for forwarding.

Also, please check upcoming email messages for information about efforts in the region to respond to the dangerously deteriorating situation on the ground in Gaza, the West Bank, E. Jerusalem, and Israel.

Monday, May 26, 2014

We had a number of very good discussions as we passed out another 300 or so flyers. Most people take them. Some come back to thank you, and a few others come back angry. It is good to hear all the reasons that standing up for Palestinian rights means that you "hate Jews." Most of us support LGBT rights; does that mean we hate hetrosexual men?

One man stopped his car in traffic and demanded a flyer. He was in a local police force that had gone to Israel for "counter terrorism training." He had seen through it all, and kept thanking us as the cars beeped behind him.

Flyering is emotionally taxing, but worth it. We don't touch people like this in our events and programs.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

We counted 120 for this event at Vassar College. A good part of the discussion with these two authors involved the growing BDS movement on campuses around the country. Also, many links were made between Obama's war on immigrants, the "New Jim Crow" mass incarceration of African Americans, and the oppression of Native American peoples. Highly militarized and undemocratic societies use racist propaganda to keep their citizens in line. Max Blumenthal referred to Israel as the most militarized society in the world. But US spending on weaponry shows our country to be in the same category.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Statement by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on 2 April 2014____________________________________________________________________ I am writing today to express grave concern about a wave of legislative measures in the United States aimed at punishing and intimidating those who speak their conscience and challenge the human rights violations endured by the Palestinian people. In legislatures in Maryland, New York, Illinois, Florida, and even the United States Congress, bills have been proposed that would either bar funding to academic associations or seek to malign those who have taken a stand against the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.

These legislative efforts are in response to a growing international initiative, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, of which I have long been a supporter. The BDS movement emanates from a call for justice put out by the Palestinian people themselves. It is a Palestinian-led, international non-violent movement that seeks to force theIsraeli government to comply with international law in respect to its treatment of the Palestinian people.

I have supported this movement because it exerts pressure without violence on the State of Israel to create lasting peace for the citizens of Israel and Palestine, peace which most citizens crave. I have witnessed the systematic violence against and humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces. Their humiliation and pain is all too familiar to us South Africans.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our democracy without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. My conscience compels me to stand with the Palestinians as they seek to use the same tactics of non-violence to further their efforts to end the oppression associated with the Israeli Occupation.

The legislations being proposed in the United States would have made participation in a movement like the one that ended Apartheid in South Africa extremely difficult.

I am also deeply troubled by the rhetoric associated with the promulgation of these bills which I understand, in the instance of Maryland, included testimony comparing the boycott to the actions of the Nazis in Germany. The Nazi Holocaust which resulted in the extermination of millions of Jews is a crime of monstrous proportions. To imply that it is in any way comparable to a nonviolent initiative diminishes the horrific nature of that genocidal and tragic era in our world history.

Whether used in South Africa, the US South, or India, boycotts have resulted in a transformative change that not only brought freedom and justice to the victims but also peace and reconciliation for the oppressors. I strongly oppose any piece of legislation meant to punish or deter individuals from pursuing this transformative aspiration. And I remain forever hopeful that, like the nonviolent efforts that have preceded it, the BDS movement will ultimately become a catalyst for honest peace and reconciliation for all our brothers and sisters, both Palestinian and Israeli, in the Holy Land.

9 Brands You Can Boycott to Hold Israel Accountable for Its Violation of International Law

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

On February 3, NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was forced to withdraw a draconian bill that would have undermined academic freedom and free speech. But - and this is critically important - our work to defeat this legislation is not over. Speaker Silver quickly issued a revised version of his bill, titled A. 8392A. There is one difference between this and the earlier version: Previously a college could have lost its entire state funding for a year if they had used any of their state funding on groups that support boycotts of Israel. In the new version, the college would only lose the amount of money actually spent on such activities. Any attempt to withhold any amount of state funding is a direct assault on our constitutionally protected right to free speech. There is no "good version" of a bill that at its core is designed to punish acts of academic freedom or free speech.